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Forum:33: Cicada Revolution
The group began the final steps of the Haka revolution below the surface of Snezhny, planning on infiltrating the drow capital Karkonen and subduing or eliminating the remaining Drow nobility gathered there. Before going, Lin resolved what little romantic tension with Eljas Conrad remained by breaking his jaw during single combat, and then convinced Karl Lexington to support the revolutionary effort with the Dead Dragons and the party. Adama gave the group their marching orders: They were to infiltrate the Terrascraper that oversees the underground city and get to the uppermost floor where the nobility had daily meetings to discuss the progress of the war against the surface elves. The group could use a public elevator to get to the top 5 floors, but then had to decide whether to attempt subtle entry in disguise through the last five floors, or take the stealthy approach along the outside of the tower, which was lined with guardpost balconies. The group elected to take the exterior tower climb, where they would be supported by Eljas Conrad's sniper fire, and Lexington and the Dead Dragons would infiltrate the building's interior. Adama also, as an afterthought, announced that he would be retiring if the mission was successful, though seemed vague about the details. At this time, the party did not elect to discuss what they had learned about Adama's identity, but saved it for a different time. The infiltration into the city went smoothly, and the group took notice of the bio-luminescent city and the populace's practice of entomophagy before getting to the Terrascaper. They took an elevator to the top five floors and then proceeded with their climb, subduing drow and demonic guardsmen with great efficacy and sniper support. They coordinated with the Dead Dragons to avoid patrols and Karl Lexington managed to provide a distraction by releasing a food store of live cicadas, whose noise and sight distracted several guards long enough for the party to bypass them. Upon reaching the top floor, Yahtuh prepared an explosive provided by D2 to destroy an exterior wall, and coordinated with the Dead Dragons inside to simultaneously attack two entrances. The resulting breach was so effective the combat-trained drow nobles inside were completely incapacitated within moments, and did not even have a chance to injure any of the invading parties in response. The decapitation thus complete, the remaining drow within the Terrascraper stood down and gave the order to allow the Haka into the city, whereupon Karkonen was flooded with revolutionaries from the various warrens. In the ensuing rush, the group managed to locate the wayward Tolya, who was outed as a spy for the deceased nobility. His appearance had apparently been forcibly altered to that of a surface elf, and his mission was to leak information about Dr. Ilyushin 's research to the drow so that they could counteract it. However, Dr. Ilyushin's abuse and the pressure of his double-agent status was ultimately too much for him to handle, and he decided to leave the doctor with a compromised hazard suit and escape to the underground with his notes. Now cornered by the party, he seemed ready to die or perform some sort of drastic action to avoid further consequences, until Lin convinced him to relent and that he still had a future ahead of him. He thus decided to leave Karkonen and told the party that his desire was simply to be left alone, but told Ten-Tongues where he had kept the research notes. Unfortunately, upon finding them, Ten-Tongues discovered that Dr. Ilyushin's mental state had degraded late in his life due to an infection, and the notes were full of inaccuracies and highly suspect. Finally, on returning to the abandoned drow Warren, the group met Adama and Yuri for the final time, where Adama filled in the group on the final chapter of the story: Adama had himself been a scion of a drow noble family that had been outsted by the others in Karkonen, so he traveled above ground to lend his talents to the surface Snezhnians as D3. However, he ultimately ended up a victim of Kalnov's regime, and returned from the dead due to his fury at the betrayal of two separate but in his mind equally corrupt systems of governance that had to be replaced wholly. Yuri was apparently a contemporary of his who had suffered a similar fate, so the two of them schemed together to destroy the destabilized drow nobility and then move against Kalnov directly. The party ended up doing the reverse, destroying Kalnov's regime first and then aiding the drow revolution, which Adama found darkly humourous, but he was grateful for the chance to avoid dealing with Kalnov himself. His revenge thus complete, Adama said that he would have no choice but to pass to the afterlife, but told the party that Yuri would henceforth be responsible for creating the new drow social order, and that he would give his word that foreigners and surface elves would be welcomed in the new drow nation, and the party themselves would be remembered for their heroic efforts in the revolution. Yuri then spoke to Artyom for the first time, assuring him that there would be mutual trust assuming that the two of them did not interfere with each other too much. However, the celebrations were shorter-lived than anticipated, as with only two days to go until the Librennian carrier Aldebaran arrives in Snezhny, the Dead Dragons learned that the Silver Eagle had gone rogue and bombed a drow warren, and the party would be forced to deal with the hithertofore unseen threat. In the end, the Lordly Raven said that he might have a solution, and began steps to send the group to Hafuujou to plan...